Subject: NATO dropped 10 tonnes of depleted uranium on Kosovo in 1999: trial
Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2000 15:10:14 PDT
From: C-afp@... (AFP)
Organization: Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)
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BELGRADE, Sept 20 (AFP) - NATO planes dropped ten tonnes of
ammunition containing depleted uranium on Kosovo during the 1999
bombings against Yugoslavia, experts said Wednesday in the third day
of Belgrade's in absentia trial of 14 Western leaders.
The 14, including US President Bill Clinton, British Prime
Minister Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac, are accused
of "ordering the aggression against Yugoslavia, committing war
crimes against civilians, using forbidden ammunition, and attempting
to murder the president (Slobodan Milosevic)."
All 14 should be put behind bars for 20 years, the Yugoslav
state prosecutor Andrija Milutinovic said.
He argued that "the gravity of the crime and the available
punishment are not in equilibrium -- the crimes are far more
serious."
"I am nevertheless certain that the tribunal will impose the
punishment they deserve," he added.
An expert of the Institute for Nuclear Sciences in Belgrade,
Radojko Pavlovic, told the court that the Alliance used ammunition
with depleted uranium in eight locations in Serbia and Montenegro,
while 10 tonnes of the dangerous substance was dropped on Kosovo.
He said NATO used such ammunition in the southern Serbian
regions of Bujanovac, Presevo and Vranje, the Montengrin peninsula
Lustica, while the Alliance admitted using it mostly near Prizren,
in southwestern Kosovo.
"The ammunition containing depleted uranium is a radiological
weapon. It is considered by the entire world as an extremely
dangerous substance that provokes serious cancer in humans,"
Pavlovic added.
"The world powers found an easy and cheap way of emptying their
stocks of this substance, by throwing it on Serbia," he alleged.
The tribunal also heard evidence on NATO use of cluster bombs,
as well as an April 1999 bombing attack of Milosevic's residence.
At the beginning of the trial Monday, the prosecutor read the
names of victims of NATO bombings -- 503 civilians, 240 Yugoslav
soldiers and 147 Serb policemen.
The trial is being held just before the September 24
presidential and general elections, seen as a crucial test for
Milosevic.
Yugoslavia, backed by several local human rights organisations
and Russian deputies, has regularly accused NATO of committing war
crimes by targetting civilians during the bombing campaign.
But Carla Del Ponte, chief prosecutor for the International
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), in June
exonerated NATO, saying the organization had not violated any
international laws with its campaign.
The ICTY has indicted Milosevic for war crimes in Kosovo.

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